Venetian Snares released Traditional Synthesizer Music, an LP comprised of songs created and performed live exclusively on a modular synthesizer with no overdubbing or editing.
According to press materials: “Each song was approached from the ground up and dismantled upon the completion of it’s recording. The goal was to develop songs with interchangeable structures and sub structures, yet musically pleasing motifs.”
“Many techniques were incorporated to “humanize” or vary the rhythmic results within these sub structures. An exercise in constructing surprises, patches interrupting each other to create unforeseen progressions. Multiple takes were recorded for each song resulting in vastly different versions of each piece.”
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It starts in barnstorming fashion, with ‘Dreamt Person v3’ and ‘Everything About You is Special’ leading one to believe that Traditional Synthesizer Music is going to represent a perfect blend between the outright insanity of Funk at his most original and the stately brilliance of classic synth exploration. As the tracks roll by, however, this mixture gradually seems to slip from focus. Moments of exhilaration still crop up – the bonkers ‘She Married a Chess Computer Champion in the End’ in particular – but there are also points at which what may be seen as a distinctive Venetian Snares personality is almost completely absent.
‘Decembers’ and ‘Health Card10’ have a smooth elegance to them that makes up for what – at first – seems to be their unfulfilled potential. ‘Goose and Gary v2’ emerges as one of the most delightfully accessible tunes Funk has penned to date. Closer ‘Paganism Ratchets’ is subtly addictive, petering out into the ether with (relatively) restrained bursts of activity whilst retaining a certain degree of ambient shimmer. In other words, this is as close as we will ever get to Venetian Snares gone komische… even if such a description is still utterly ludicrous.